Gemini
by squidbert
Summary: Twins Eddie and Tony are separated as preschoolers only to encounter each other in college after being kept apart by their divorced parents.  Drama and adventures ensue.  Love and mistaken identities.  AH.  E&B eventually.
1. Gemini, Prologue

Gemini

Prologue

1998

I worshipped my father. You hear that is what little boys do and that is exactly what I did. He was a big man, freckled with a shock of red hair combed straight over the top of his head. He always wore a suit and smelled like starch, drying cleaning and leather.

Daddy always drove a nice car. This year it was a 1998 BMW 5 Series. To Daddy, appearance was everything and this was his first big purchase. I guess that should have been Mama's clue right then. Daddy was moving up in the world and Mama still had her feet mired in the Florida sand.

Daddy was still a young man back then who was climbing up the ladder in the South Florida real estate market at the height of the Clinton boom years. But the hours were long and he worked late and came home even later. Sometimes when Daddy kissed me and my brother goodnight I wondered why Daddy smelled more like perfume instead of leather.

Tony and I had noticed that Mama was crying more and more and that Daddy and her were yelling behind closed doors. But this last week had been the worst and I had hardly seen Daddy at all. But what happened next turned my world upside down.

Now you have to understand that me and my brother were the best brothers in the whole world. We were twins, and that meant that we were supposed to be together. We stood up for each other on the playground, we shared our toys, we shared our books, we shared everything.

I was the older by a whole fifteen minutes and that meant I was the protector. Nobody got away with pushing my brother around. Tony, he was the brains. He was the one that charmed the deli lady at the Publix grocery store out of more cookies when Mama was not looking. He's the one that snuck up behind the bully on the playground on his hands and knees so I could push the bully down. We were only six, but by God we knew what it was to have a good wingman even then.

But that all went to hell that night when Daddy came home.

Me and Tony were in our room playing on our bunk bed when we heard Mama start screaming. "NO! No! No! You can take my baby away from me Edward! You just can't!"

We could hear Daddy's muffled yelling through the door. "Shut up Elizabeth. The court's decision is final. You get Eddie and I get Tony! Now I'm giving you three weeks to pack your shit and get the hell out of my life so I can sell this damned house."

Mommy was nearly hysterical. "Edward Masen! Don't you dare seperate those two! You know it will break their hearts."

"I don't care Elizabeth. I know that Irina wants just one kid and one kid only, and that's all I'm bringing home."

Mommy was screeching by this point. "Irina! That whore you've been cheating on me with? I will be god damned if that bitch gets within twenty miles of my baby."

"That's where you're wrong Elizabeth. Tony is mine and I can do with him as I please."

That was the last time I saw my brother. Daddy slammed the door open, grabbed Tony by the arm and dragged him out hollering and screeching the whole way. Daddy did not even stop to grab Tony some clothes.

I grabbed Curious George off Tony's bed and threw it to him as they were headed out the door. George was his favorite stuffed animal and losing him would have killed him for sure. I was the protector, remember?

I never saw Tony again after that day. Later on I learned that Mommy and Daddy's divorce was not "amicable". Daddy cheated on her and to her that was an unforgivable sin.

I never mentioned Tony to Mommy either. Every time I did she would start crying and would tell me to go to my room. Even after she married Garrett and had my little sister Charlotte and little brother Peter she never responded when I tried to talk to her about Tony.

After a while I guess I wondered if Tony ever even existed or if my twin was just some fantasy I had cooked up in my six year old head. The only thing I had to prove he was real was a picture I had hidden in the treasure box in the bottom of my closet. It was the only one Mommy never found and burned.


	2. Gemini, Chapter One

**AN: Well, welcome to my first fanfiction. **

**I started reading Twilight FF about a year ago while my wife was pregnant with our second child. But it took until today to work up the courage to give writing a try. Much like Ms. Meyer to whom we owe so much (and who owns Angsty Edward and Clumsy Bella) this story idea came to me in a dream. I hope I can do it justice.**

**The basic plot is finished, but is not set in stone. The chapter summaries are about halfway finished. Character notes and sketches are still very much a work in process. I wanted to focus on writing the early chapters just to get the ball rolling and to give me some finished product to put out there. As the characters come closer to their appearances on the stage I anticipate fleshing them out a lot more.**

**I have not written enough to be able to gauge how fast I will be able to crank out the chapters. I figure I will start out with a bang and then will slow down as I develop a better feel for my natural pace.**

**I do not have a beta or a pre-reader or anything highfalutin like that. Any mistakes in grammar are my own and any spelling mistakes are curtesey of Google's spell checker.**

**~Squid**

_**All copyrighted materials, trademarked items, or recognizable characters, plots, etc. mentioned herein belong to their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. No copying, translation or reproduction of this work is permitted without their express written authorization. **_

_**All honor and glory to Stephenie Meyer for giving us these unforgettable characters. **_

Chapter One

_August, 2010_

Mom said I should not have come to the city. She always hated it. It reminded her too much of her past life and her past pain. She was happy where she was now, ensconced in a 1970's ranch style home out in the live oak country east of Lakeland.

She and Garrett loved their farm with its cows, horses and pigs. There was a massive tree out front with a tire swing for my kid sister and brother. There was the above ground pool out back for grilling and parties surrounded by a eight foot privacy fence and shaded with cabbage palms. And of course there was the trailer home they had sitting at the edge of the pasture that they rented out to Garrett's deadbeat sister and her brood. She had four kids and they had four different fathers. Beyond that, I could not be bothered to keep track.

Garrett's latest addition was a four post carport for their precious RV. They loved to drive it up to North Carolina and cruise up the Blue Ridge Parkway, stopping at every cheesy antique store, outlet mall and tourist trap on the way. I had been with them a couple times and wound up car sick and bored out of my skull.

God I hated that farm and I hated that life. I hated the chores. I hated the mosquitoes and the fire ants. I hated the damned sand in my shoes and the two acres of grass that needed cutting year round. About the only thing I did enjoy was riding Mom's horse, Chief. Chief was a beautiful roan Arabian stallion that was her pride and joy. Garrett bought him for her for their tenth wedding anniversary last year, and I thought Mom was going to pass out from joy and surprise.

But right now I was riding away from that life and it certainly wasn't on my mom's horse. The pickup I was driving rattled and clanked from age. I bought it off my friend Leah for three hundred bucks when she left for NYU two years ago.

For some reason she thought that a 1969 Chevy C10 with a gold hood and a big white stripe down the side was not a good fit for the Big Apple. It had a spare tire in front of the grill, a rusted bed and cow shit on the fenders. It also had stick on gems all around the back window courtesy of Leah and her misguided attempt to make the truck more girly. I left the gems, but changed its name from Bertha to Ralph.

You know, after Ralph Stanley, the bluegrass singer? I was a proud country boy and could not think of a bigger tribute then to name my favorite crusty old truck after my favorite crusty old musician.

Ralph's engine was a muted growl under the roar of air from my open windows. I had the wing vents flipped around backwards so the hot air hit me right in the face. The blinding light of the Central Florida sun was beating down and I felt like a sugar cookie in my sister's easy bake oven. It was a hundred and three with ninety percent humidity and I would have given my left nut for a truck with air conditioning.

The blast of air from barreling along on the parkway was the only thing keeping me from drowning in my own sweat. I grabbed my collar and angled it so the rush of air inflated my shirt, pealing it away from my overheated skin and making it flop like a fish on my Uncle Carl's dock. I let up on the gas so I could peel my legs off the vinyl where the Daffy Duck beach towel I was sitting on had ridden up.

The towel covered the rips in the rips in the upholstery where the springs and the foam were poking through. It also kept me from getting third degree burns on my ass from the superheated vinyl. You could just about cook an egg on that uncovered seat after any length of time in the sun.

Thankfully the tollway finally came to an end and I fished the last of my change out of Ralph's ashtray. I was getting pretty damned excited by this point. I only had a couple miles left to the start of my new life.

I had been to the campus once before for freshman orientation. Garrett and Mom drove me up in their car with the GPS that time. I did not have that luxury this time, but thanks to an almost photographic memory for directions I knew exactly where to go. I made a right onto Alafaya Trail, a right onto Central Florida Boulevard and another right onto Gemini Boulevard.

I laughed to myself. Gemini. Twins. Fat lot of good it did me to think about twins. I briefly wondered where Tony was and if he was going to college. I had looked for him on Facebook a couple times but nothing ever popped up. Once I saw mention of my Dad in the business section of the Miami Herald but I ignored it. I still was not ready to forgive him for cheating on Mom.

It was only a few minutes more before I was pulling into the loading zone for the dorms.

I jogged over for quick stop by the housing office to grab my keys. I ran back to the dorms and did a quick walk through of my room. Basic to the extreme, it was nothing more then two beds, two dressers, two desks and a sink. A door lead off to a shower we shared with the adjoining suite. I cranked the A/C and made the couple of trips to the truck to bring in my stuff.

I did not have much. A single Army duffel handed down from my grandpa that was stuffed with clothes, a backpack with my laptop and a file box full of knickknacks. Oh, and my treasure box with that picture of Tony and me that thankfully mom had never found.

I knew we were on the upper end of poor, but I also knew Mom did her best to provide for me. I remember how bad it was a little kid living in a run down trailer behind my Aunt Esse Mae and Uncle Carl's home. Things got a lot better once Mom married Garrett, but it was still tight even with selling some of the cows and pigs at auction while Garrett worked days at a Publix warehouse in Lakeland driving a forklift.

I moved my truck back over to the parking garage and pulled out my last worldly possession. A beat up old ten speed named Fred that I had since I was kid.

Fred was special to me. He was my ticket to the world when I was little and I rode him everywhere. At some point in the past he was white and had tires with some tread on them, but now he was coated with sand and filth and had tires balder then Kojak. I figured that keeping him dirty would lower the chances of him getting stolen. It did not hurt that all the sand in the bearings made a quiet getaway impossible. He sounded like a cement mixer.

I rode back to the dorms, chained up Fred to the bike rack and headed in for a nap. The room was blissfully cold and the AC had sucked enough humidity out of the air to make breathing tolerable. I peeled off my soaked shirt and tossed it over the back of my chair and barely had the energy to throw the fitted sheet on the mattress before crashing headlong into my pillow. I was out cold in seconds.

I awoke to the sound of the door opening. I propped myself up on my elbow to see who was coming in. I guess my roommate was here.

**If you think I have even a modicum of talent please review and let me know. If you think I am a worthless hack please review and let me know that as well. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it.**


	3. Gemini, Chapter Two

**AN: I have been writing documentation, proposals, project plans and lengthy delicate emails for years, but nothing prepared me for the minefield that is dialog.**

**I need to mention that this story has a M rating just to cover any eventualities. I do like a little bit of nooky in my fiction and I start dropping a bit in with this chapter.**

**Also, my spouse has been drilling it into my skull that I need to stop swearing out loud, so sure enough, all that pent up hick is popping out in my writing.**

_**All copyrighted materials, trademarked items, or recognizable characters, plots, etc. mentioned herein belong to their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. No copying, translation or reproduction of this work is permitted without their express written authorization. **_

_**All honor and glory to Stephenie Meyer for giving us these unforgettable characters.**_

Chapter Two

Honestly, I think I was a bit scared. For a second I revered back into a scared little boy on his first day of summer camp. My stomach clenched up and I could feel the flush of blood behind my ears. Nice to know that my primal flight or fight instinct was still alive and well. 

I was curious too. I reveled in those moments in life where you have no idea what fate has in store. Those moments when the dice are in the air; when the ball is still bounding around the roulette wheel.

For the next ten months I was going to be living with the random person that was trying to shove the ass end of an over-sized suitcase through the heavy wooden door. The self closing mechanism was powerful and I could see that he was having trouble trying to shove the suitcase while holding the door open with his other hand.

I rolled out of bed and grabbed my shirt off the chair before throwing it over my head. It only took about three steps to reach the door and pull it the rest of the way open.

"Hey man, thanks! I'm Tyler," he said as he pushed his suitcase in the rest of the way.

I stuck out my left hand in a backwards handshake as I tried to get the heel of my foot around the door to prop it open.

We stood there for a second sizing each other up. He was seeing a tall, tan, muscled up country boy with disheveled bronze hair. I was looking at an even taller skinny guy with tight black curly hair, an earring and a huge grin on his face.

"Howdy Tyler, I'm Edward. Looks like we're roommates."

I mentally slapped myself. I wondered when I received this gift for stating the obvious and just exactly when I could return it to the store.

"Yes, I guess so," he chucked. "You a freshman here?"

"Yah. Just got here a couple hours ago. You?"

"Naw, this is my second year. I'm studying accounting." He scrutinized me again. "Maybe we can go out later and I can show you around campus" he offered.

Damn, he seemed like a nice guy. I guess fate decided to cut me a break.

"Do you need help carrying anything else in?" Since he had offered so nicely to show me around campus, I figured manners were the order of the day. Plus, Mom had raised me right.

"Hell yeah! I learned the hard way about minimalism last year. This year I brought a ton of crap."

I followed him outside, making small talk while he lead me over to his van. It was blue and black monstrosity with wide, jacked up tires in the back, huge speakers, and a mini disco ball hanging from the ceiling.

"Nice ride?" I snarked.

He spun around with his hands up. "Hey man, don't knock Black Beauty. It carries all my shit, gets me to the grocery store and the ladies love it. Best damn thing my dad ever bought me."

I nodded in agreement. "Touché. I can't say anything, I drive a complete piece of shit with sparkles on the cab."

He barked out a quick laugh. "Sparkles? What are you, some kind of vampire?"

I shook my head. "Damn man, that was low." He was asking for it now. I decided to bring out some of my better material. "You know, the girl I bought it from had one of those sparkly vampire dildos."

"Holy shit dude," he gasped, "how did you know that?"

"We were good friends. We made out on a couple of dates. She showed it to me when we were in her bedroom one afternoon." Damn that was a nice memory. I ended up using it on her that same day and judging from her moans, I got it right.

"Hah, I bet you used it on her judging from that grin on your face right now."

I felt my face heat up. "Yeah man. I did. That was a hell of a day, right up until when her dad walked in on me while I was diddling her bug."

Tyler doubled over laughing. "How the hell did you get out of that one?"

"The same way any red blooded American boy would," I quickly replied. "I dropped that dildo like it was a hot rock and ran. I wasn't exactly welcomed around her place after that."

Thinking back at the lack of retaliation by her father I realized he was probably glad it was a dildo in her and not my schlong. Heh, schlong, what a great word.

Tyler had lost the use of his legs by this point. He was laughing too hard to breathe and had slid down to the ground with his back to the van. He sniffed and wiped a tear off his cheek. "Goddamn man, that's a hell of a story."

I reached down and helped him back up. "Yah, it was a valuable experience" I sagely replied. I nodded toward the back of the van. "Now lets unload the rest of your shit. It's hot as hell out here."

Tyler reached in the van and handed me a microwave. I was surprised. I was pretty sure I had read that cooking was not allowed in the dorms.

"Dude, why do you have this? I thought they weren't permitted?" I asked as we turned to go back inside.

"Nah man, it's cool. I hide it up in the closet and cover it with a towel. As long as the RA doesn't smell anything burning its alright."

A couple more trips took care of the rest of Tyler's crap. I relaxed in the room while he went to go park his van.

I had to admit that I was amazed at the change in the room. He had made a loft by stacking his bed up on top of the dressers and filled the space underneath with a mini fridge. The fridge shared the space with stacks of milk cartons on their sides filled with books. It was an elegant use of what would have otherwise been wasted space.

He'd thrown up a couple generic posters for bands I did not really care about to cover some of the stark white walls. But most importantly, he had attached a very nice centerfold to the back of the door.

He did not go for the standard blonde bimbo with giant fake tits, but rather put a tasteful back shot of a brunette with long dark brown wavy hair. She had great natural looking tits, and there was just enough side boob to see some pink nipple.

When he finally wandered back in I complemented him on his taste in women.

He laughed, "Yah man, I didn't want to stick anything up that would offend our mama's, but I don't want any chicks to think we're a couple of prudes."

I had to agree with his reasoning. "That makes sense. Speaking of... are you gonna have a lot of women in here?" I was curious. "Do I need to buy earplugs? Hang a tie on the door?"

"Nah man. Most of my girlfriends have their own apartments. Trust me, its a lot nicer to go over to their houses." _Girlfriends? _I wondered just how big a player this guy was.

"Oh, and Edward, if you have a girl in here for the love of God don't open the window." At that point I realized that our ground floor window probably made a great door. "I jumped in the window last semester to grab a book and my roommate and his girl gave me quite an eyeful."

I burst out laughing. "That's priceless man. I would have paid good money to see that."

"Well," he replied, "I don't know about good money. He kinda had a hairy ass. She was fuckhawt though. Gold hair, blue eyes, great legs... just unf."

"Hrm, not my type," I stated. I had problems with blondes in the past. Fucking Lauren and Jessica. "I like 'em like little Miss September over there. Brown hair and brown eyes."

I thought for a second, and realized that I was sounding like a girl. I backtracked quickly. "But hey! A show is a show."

Tyler scoffed. "Damn right brother. Good recovery by the way. I was about to revoke your man card."

He looked around the room and nodded to himself. Apparently he was satisfied with how everything came together. "Now," he said, "hows about that tour?"

**O~o~O~o~O~o~O~o~O~o~O~o~O~o~O~o~O~o~O~o~O~o~O~o~O**

**The jumping through the window story is true. Actually happened.**

**A word of warning, I think I speak for fathers everywhere when I say that teen pregnancy is a STD. So don't stick a dick where it doesn't belong, use a dildo instead of a schlong.**

**It will probably be a couple days before another update. All that dialog was exhausting to write.**

**Please review!**


	4. Gemini, Chapter Three

_**All**____**copyrighted**____**materials**__**, **__**trademarked**____**items**__**, **__**or**____**recognizable**____**characters**__**, **__**plots**__**, **__**etc**__**. **__**mentioned**____**herein**____**belong**____**to**____**their**____**respective**____**owners**__**. **__**The**____**original**____**characters**____**and**____**plot**____**are**____**the**____**property**____**of**____**the**____**author**__**. **__**The**____**author**____**is**____**in**____**no**____**way**____**associated**____**with**____**the**____**owners**__**, **__**creators**__**, **__**or**____**producers**____**of**____**any**____**media**____**franchise**__**. **__**No**____**copyright**____**infringement**____**is**____**intended**__**. **__**No**____**copying**__**, **__**translation**____**or**____**reproduction**____**of**____**this**____**work**____**is**____**permitted**____**without**____**their**____**express**____**written**____**authorization**__**. **_

_**All**____**honor**____**and**____**glory**____**to**____**Stephenie**____**Meyer**____**for**____**giving**____**us**____**these**____**unforgettable**____**characters**__**.**_

ChapterThree

Tyler and I headed back out into the roasting afternoon heat. The hot air on the sidewalk was rippling in a shimmering layer just off the concrete. The grass looked a faded, washed out green under the intense sunlight.

I trailed along as Tyler showed me the ins and outs of the campus, the two of us making our way from one air conditioned shaded oasis to another. It was a beautiful campus, with the focal point being the original section of the university where red brick buildings surrounded an enormous reflecting pond.

The pond was built using white painted concrete and was shaped like a amphitheater. The steps and the surrounding lawns all sloped down toward the giant fountain in the center of the pond. Students littered the lawn, reading, listening to music or just enjoying the feeling of the sun on their skin.

Palm trees and live oaks were planted next to the encircling sidewalks, providing some shade from the unrelenting heat. Statues and islands of vegetation helped to break up the open spaces and lent some visual interest to the shimmering expanses of concrete, brick and grass.

Our last stop was the student union in the center of campus. Tyler was headed there to meet up with some friends that had texted him while we were walking. I decided to go along because I was starving and I wanted get a bite to eat.

I had been in the union once before, when I took the orientation tour a couple weeks before. But even then, it was still a stunning building. The towering atrium was breathtaking in the light of the late afternoon. Reflected sunlight glittered off the chrome and the white tiles and the giant Pegasus logo in the center of the floor.

"Close your mouth Cullen, you'll catch flies," Tyler laughed while punching me in the arm.

"Whatever, it's a cool building," I tried to play him off.

"Hey," Tyler pointed across the room at a group of students, "I'm gonna go meet up with my friends over there. Wanna meet them?"

"Nah," I shook my head, "I'm beat and I'm hungry. I'm just gonna grab a bite and head back to the room."

"Alright," Tyler said over his shoulder as he walked away, "I'll see you later man."

I looked around at my choices and settled on a nice steak burrito. I had just gotten to the counter and started giving my order to the line worker when I heard a startled gasp behind me. I turned to look, only to be confronted by one of the smallest and angriest persons I had ever seen in my life.

She stood maybe four foot ten, had elfin features and a cloud of spiky black hair. The cloud did not just stop at her hair. I swear I could see a cartoonish black thunderstorm of anger just above her head. I could tell from the glare on her face that I was about to be in deep trouble.

Behind her I saw the rapidly retreating back of another girl. I caught a glimpse of long mahogany hair but her face was obscured and I could see that she had her hand raised to cover her mouth. She was obviously upset by both the speed she was leaving, and the hunched set of her shoulders.

My attention was quickly drawn back to the short ball of angry elf in front of me when she hauled off and slapped me across the face.

"Owww!" I yelled, "what the hell was that for?"

"You son of a bitch," she started growling at me. "You said you were going to Gainesville, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Gainesville?" I said, confused, all the while trying to shake off the ringing in my left ear, "I'm sorry lady, but I have never set eyes on you before and I have no idea what you are talking about." At this point I was pissed as hell. I saw the line worker staring at us. I could tell she was trying to figure out if she needed to call the authorities.

I held up my hand indicating I needed a minute. I turned back to the tiny ball of fury in front of me, "Now start talking before I have the campus police arrest your ass for assaulting me."

"Don't you play dumb with me Tony," she hissed. "You know goddamn well what I'm talking about. You know she has a restraining order against you." My mouth dropped open. Restraining order? What the hell was she talking about? She stuck a finger in my face, "If there is anyone that will be calling campus police it's going to be me."

"Look, my name isn't Tony, it's Edward," I half yelled at her as I batted her finger away. "And I don't know a single damned thing about a restraining order." At this point I reached for my wallet in my back pocket and pulled it out. "Look," I said, pointing at my driver's license, "my name is Edward Cullen." She reached out to grab the wallet to hold it steady while she glared at it, daring it to say something else.

I reached down and grabbed her by the hand holding my wallet. "Now you and I are going to sit down and talk, and you are going to tell me what is going on." She glared at our joined hands, before yanking hers free. "I don't want to walk around campus in constant fear of having random women come up and slap me," I growled.

I turned to the line worker and told her everything was fine. She turned my assailant who also nodded in the affirmative.

I stalked over to the nearest booth and slid in. I was relieved to see that the young woman had followed me. But she did not sit down. She just stood there, staring at me with her head cocked to the side, examining me like I was some puzzle she had yet to solve. It seemed like forever before she finally shook her head, as if she was clearing out some mental cobwebs, and slid into the opposite bench.

She looked down, placed both hands on the table and tightly interlaced her fingers. It was as if she no longer trusted her hands. She glanced back up at me and studied my eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said, with a note of wonder in her voice. "I can see the difference now." She cocked her head and examined me again, "but the likeness is absolutely uncanny. You look just like him."

"Explain."

"You saw that girl I was with?" she asked. I nodded. "We went to school with this guy, Tony, down in Miami. She used to date him."

"What has that got to do with me?"

"You have to understand, when they broke up... well, it wasn't pretty." She glanced down and to the side, like she was recalling something unpleasant. "Tony got pretty mean about the whole thing. They had, like, this huge fight," she paused, searching for words, "and, well, it got pretty physical."

I felt my hand tensing up into a fist and felt the heat rise on the back of my neck in reaction to the direction the story was going. The girl noticed and quickly placed her hand over mine in a calming gesture.

She shook her head, as if to deny the memory and to discourage my reaction, "It ended up with my friend going to the hospital." She removed her hand and leaned back. "That's why there is a restraining order and that's why I reacted like I did."

She took a deep breath and looked me in the eye again, "I'm so, so sorry hitting you." She shook her head again, "But I was the one that was there for her to pick up the pieces, and I'm just so damned angry at that son of a bitch. And there you were, looking just like him, like you didn't have a care in the world."

I ran my fingers through my hair, "Okay, I get why you slapped me." I had not missed the bit about the hospital and the back of my neck started getting hotter. I paused, "Honestly I think I would have done worse. But I still don't understand, why me?"

She pulled out her iPhone. "Look," she said as she started flicking through photos. She pulled up what looked like a prom photo and zoomed in on the face of one of the guys in the background. She shoved the phone under my nose, "this guy, right here, that's Tony."

The blood must have drained from my face pretty quickly, because the next thing I remembered was Alice rushing around the table.

"Omygosh, omygosh, are you ok?"

I was stunned. That was me in the photo. There I was in all the phone's pixelated glory wearing a tux I had never rented, with a carnation I had never smelled, with my arms around a pretty girl I had never seen.


End file.
